Shoah Victims Demand Nigel Farage to Say Sorry Over Claimed Anti-Jewish Statements.

A collective of Holocaust survivors has insisted that Nigel Farage tell the truth and issue an apology for alleged anti-Jewish abuse he is said to have made toward Jewish students during his youth.

The political party leader has said he never targeted anyone with deliberate cruelty, suggesting it may have been mere "schoolyard talk".

"As Holocaust survivors, we understand the grave risk of words of hatred – for we have seen where such words can lead," declared the survivors in a missive.

"Let us be clear: lauding Hitler, mocking gas chambers, or hurling racist abuse is not simple joking. Not in a playground. Not under any circumstances."

A Pointed Inquiry

The document asks straightforward questions to the public figure: "Is it true you said ‘Hitler was right’ and ‘gas them,’ and mimicked gas chambers? Did you target your peers to bigoted harassment?"

The Signatories

The collective of eleven survivors includes individuals with deeply traumatic personal experiences from the Holocaust.

• Hedi Argent, who lost 27 members of her immediate and extended family.
• Simon Winston, who was imprisoned in a ghetto before fleeing in 1942 and living through the rest of the war concealed.
• Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, who was deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau and later moved to Bergen-Belsen, where she was freed.

The remaining survivors include Janine Webber, Edith Jayne, Helen Aronson, Ruth Barnett, John Fieldsend, Susan Pollack, Hanneke Dye and Agnes Kaposi.

Growing Accounts

This intervention follows the dismissal of corroborating testimony by more than two dozen or more former pupils and teachers as "fabricated nonsense" by a high-ranking official.

Following the publication, more contemporaries have come forward. Nearly thirty former pupils and teachers now claim they witnessed racist or antisemitic behaviour by him.

One prominent account comes from Peter Ettedgui, a Jewish Bafta and Emmy-winning director, who said that a teenage Farage would approach him and utter the phrases "Hitler was right" and "gas them", sometimes including a long hiss to imitate the sound of gas chambers.

Additional Claims

Other former pupils from ethnic minorities have likewise spoken publicly with accounts of personal harassment.

• Cyrus Oshidar said he was called a "racial slur" and has dismissed the claim that such actions were devoid of malice.
• Another pupil of Asian descent characterised him as an "blatant racist" who would use the phrase "Enoch Powell had a point" as a form of "racial intimidation".

The Ultimate Question

The missive from survivors asks a concluding challenge to Farage: "By denying saying those words, do you mean that dozens of individuals are not telling the truth? If you did say them, now is the time to take responsibility and apologise."

"People who hope to lead our country should never sow discord by background or belief. Anti-Jewish bigotry must always be confronted. This moment is about moral responsibility. The choice is yours, Mr Farage."